The UNSW Built Environment is pleased to announce that BE Emeritus Professor Ian Burnley has recently been elected as a fellow to the Academy of Social Science.


Election to such a position is highly esteemed, and is only awarded to those who have achieved a very high level of scholarly distinction, and have made a distinguished contribution to one or more disciplines of the social sciences. Professor Burnley was elected by a majority of existing Fellows of the academy for his research involving the study of immigrant communities.


His work involved the adjustment and the impacts of immigrant communities - and more recently the study of second generations; the study of internal migration within Australia, with particular reference to urbanisation and coastal communities; the study of mortality and morbidity at the local level, with particular reference to inequalities in life expectancy, and socioeconomic and environmental influences on spatial variations in major causes of death, notably cancers, heart disease and stroke. His work has focused on differentials within Sydney and Melbourne and within large cities and the interrelationship between demographic factors, urbanization and suburbanization. This research straddles human geography, urban studies, social demography and health studies.


The Academy of Social Sciences in Australia is an autonomous, non-governmental organisation, devoted to the advancement of knowledge and research in the various social sciences. There are 510 Fellows of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. The academy includes the disciplines of economics, political economy, commerce, law, social medicine, sociology, anthropology, demography, human geography, and related areas.